Gordon Brown

Britain's former prime minister Gordon Brown played a key role in shaping the G20 nations' response to the world's financial crisis, and was a powerful advocate for a coordinated global response to problems such as climate change, poverty and social justice.

Why you should listen

During his long term of office, former UK prime minister Gordon Brown became one of the world's most experienced political leaders, with a deep understanding of the global economy based on 10 years' experience as Great Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer. He has been a key architect of the G8's agreements on poverty and climate change, and has provided a passionate voice to encourage the developed world to aid struggling African countries. He is an advocate of global solutions for global problems -- through both the reinvention of international institution and the advancement of a global ethics.

While prime minister, Brown promoted technology as a tool for economic (and environmental) recovery. With his charge to "count the carbon and the pennies," research on electric cars and residential energy efficiency are slated to become a major part of the UK's recovery plan. He pushed for universal broadband and a general increase in spending on science. And he sought to use new communication tools like Twitter and YouTube as a means to communicate government policy.

What others say

“Brown does not run from the image of the homme sérieux.” — New York Review of Books

Gordon Brown’s TED talks

Gordon Brown on the TED Blog

Can the interests of an individual nation be reconciled with humanity’s greater good? Can a patriotic, nationally elected politician really give people in other countries equal consideration? Following his TEDTalk calling for a global ethic, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown fields questions from TED Curator Chris Anderson. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009, Oxford, UK. […]

We’re at a unique moment in history, says UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, speaking earlier today at TEDGlobal in Oxford. He says we can use today’s interconnectedness to develop our shared global ethic — and work together to confront the challenges of poverty, security, climate change and the economy. (Recorded at TEDGlobal 2009, July 2009 […]

The much-buzzed-about surprise speaker at the first session of TEDGlobal 2009 was finally revealed to be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown. A Twitterer himself, the Prime Minster’s appearance on the TED stage quickly drove the #TED tag into Twitter’s top trending topics today. Here’s a slice of what people were tweeting: our Prime Minister was […]